Mariner's Cookbook Sauerkraut!

Sauerkraut!

Jul 22, 2017

Everybody who knows me knows that, especially since I retired, I despise weekend traffic. Too many people going too many places, too fast, and too rude! Since I don't want to be seen on the 11:00 PM news, being hauled away by the police for a "road rage" incident, I just stay home. This may seem to have little to do with food and cooking, but it explains (at least in part) why I am able to put together this article about making sauerkraut.

Because of my antipathy for driving around on weekends, my Honey and I do all of our shopping on weekdays, between about 9:00 AM and 3:30 PM, which serves to explain how and why we were out shopping early this past Monday. We can usually do this, except for a couple of hours around lunch time each day. If anything, the lunch crowd is even worse than the rush hour crowd, because, instead of packing a lunch, or eating at a convenient cafeteria, all of those insane drivers go out for lunch - at the same time!

Anyway, I needed something from an electronics store about ten or so miles away from my abode, and as we entered their parking lot, we noticed that a new Asian food market had opened next door. My Honey is a sucker for a new food store, particularly if it is of overseas extraction, so naturally, we had to check it out. Surprisingly, this store had nearly nothing but food, on offer; which wasn't a bad thing, just unusual. Honey found several items she might pick up later, but the main thing the store accomplished was to remind us of another, older Asian market, less than a couple of miles away.

We wrapped up our business at the electronics store, and headed to the more familiar Asian market, which had a larger and more diverse housewares department. While Honey was perusing various items, I wandered around on my own, and ended up in a section where several odd-looking items were stacked, nearly to the ceiling. On first glance, they appeared to be strange-looking plastic storage containers, but on further investigation, it turned out that what I had found was the store's stock of kimchi fermentation vessels.

Kimchi is, basically, Korean sauerkraut. As far as I am concerned, the jury is still out on whether one should count oneself fortunate, if one has ever become familiar with kimchi! Most popular recipes start with Napa cabbage, and add a variety of other ingredients before fermenting, often including a fish sauce, and at least one recipe includes tiny shrimp. The, ah.... aroma of the fermenting vegetables (and seafood!) is described by kimchi lovers as intense. Others might use less complimentary terms.

open fermenter, showing inner lid assembly

To make a long story short, I carefully examined the design and materials of the plastic vessels, and was impressed with the engineering. The price almost scared me away - I object in principle to paying multiple tens of dollars for a few cents worth of plastic! - but how do you assign a value to a good design?

Anyway, I had been wanting to try my hand at making sauerkraut (European version) for some time, so I ended up purchasing one of the smaller vessels, for the project.

Now sauerkraut recipes abound everywhere, and one might even make a successful batch without even having read one! So here goes:

Print Recipe

Suggested Equipment:

Some kind of fermenter. I used one of the type shown in the pictures here. Others will swear by ceramic crocks or glass jars, or whatever. All of these alternatives require different configurations that I'm not going to discuss here.
Food processor, mandoline, or knife and cutting board, to reduce cabbage to shreds.
Stainless steel mixing bowls of appropriate size and shape.
Kraut/kimchi pounder (optional)

Ingredients:

I use ordinary green cabbage, and a medium-to-large head will yield around 2 to 3 lb of usable shreds.

Some people recommend avoiding iodized salt - not just for sauerkraut, but for preparing nearly any kind of preserved food - mostly for aesthetic reasons. If you use kosher salt, you'll have to add more. Best do it by weight. For salt: 1 tsp ≅ 6 grams.

Technically optional, but I never make sauerkraut without them.

2 scant teaspoons of salt per cup of water

Added at end of fermenter charging step.
Item		Amount
Cabbage	Fresh, head, any variety¹	2	ea
Salt	Canning or kosher²	3	Tbs
Peppercorns³	Dry, whole	1-1½	tsp
Mustard³	Seed, whole, black and/or yellow	1-1½	tsp
Red pepper³	Dry, crushed, flakes	2	tsp
Brine⁴		to	cover⁵

Directions:

Maintain cleanliness! Fermentation is a biological process. In other words, there are living organisms at work turning your cabbage into kraut! You only want certain, specific ones working there, because having the wrong ones in there can make you sick when you eat the kraut (not to mention that they may ruin the flavor!).

Shred the cabbage into pieces of uniform size. Sauerkraut is a pickled product. The fermentation process, produces lactic acid, which does the pickling. Having all the pieces the same size means that pickling will finish for all of the pieces at the same time. Failure to do this can result in a mix, where some pieces are nearly raw while others have become limp and soggy.
Using a large stainless steel bowl, lay in a layer of the shredded cabbage. For this particular ferment, I tend to add about ½ lb of cabbage at a time. Crush the cabbage using whatever clean tool you may have that will do the job (if you do this correctly, you will need hardly any additional brine!). Most people use their (clean) fist! I have several versions of a wooden kimchi pounder. I choose a size that best fits the situation.
Sprinkle salt (and any spices you use) over the crushed cabbage in proportion to the amount of cabbage you added in Step 2.
Repeat Steps 2 though 4, until you have enough to fill your fermenting vessel, or until you run out of cabbage, whichever comes first, before proceeding to the next step. Done properly, the cabbage and salt will make most, if not all, of the brine needed for the ferment - but make some supplemental brine up, just in case.
If you are using a "starter" culture, add it to the crushed cabbage at this is the time.
Stir the crushed, shredded cabbage to thoroughly mix all the components, and transfer the mix to your fermentation vessel.
Finish assembling your fermentation vessel. The procedure for doing this depends on the type of vessel you are using. If you are using a vessel similar to mine, simply install the inner lid assembly, press it down until the cabbage underneath is submerged in the brine, and plug the pressure relief hole. If you didn't get enough brine from pounding the cabbage, add supplemental brine to insure that the cabbage is completely submerged.

Whatever type of fermenter you use, make sure that the cabbage is completely submerged.
Cover your fermenter! If it came with an external cover, use it. If not, improvise one. You need to make it impossible - or at least difficult - for uninvited guests to get in and mess up your ferment.
Check the vessel every day to bleed off fermentation gasses, to ensure that the kraut solids remain submerged, and to combat any mold invasion. Add supplemental brine as needed. If your kraut turns pink, black, or any other odd color, throw it out! You may see formation Of Kahm yeast. This sometimes appears as an almost transparent film over the surface of your brine, and can develop a "lumpy" texture if left too long. The yeast itself is harmless, but many makers complain about altered taste. If you see any develop, skim it off, and add brine as needed to replace the volume.
Wait. Fermentation takes time. The folks at NCHFP say a minimum of 3 weeks, up to about 6 weeks, depending on environmental conditions. When temperatures are low (60º to 65ºF), it takes longer (maybe 5 or 6 weeks!). When they are nearer normal room temperature (70º to 75ºF) that time can be much shorter (3 to 4 weeks). Above 75ºF one risks product deterioration.

There are a lot of optional choices for additional spices. Some of these include dill weed, coriander seed, poppy seed, celery seed, and a host of others. use Use, selection, and amounts of additional spices is purely optional for the kraut maker.

Some folks claim that fermentation can conclude as early as 3 days, and this may or may not be true. Part of the kraut-making process is pickling, though, and pickling takes several weeks, even if fermentation has stopped.

Some of those same folks will also tell you that, after fermenting 3 days, you should put your kraut in the refrigerator! Let's look at this proposition: a properly designed and operated home refrigerator should keep its (non-frozen) contents at a temperature between 32° and 40℉. According to NCHFP, fermentation stops a temperatures below 60℉. I can affirm the truth of this, because I tried it. It took several days for my kraut to warm up enough to resume fermenting!

Advice? Don't pull your kraut out too early, and don't chill it below 60℉, or it'll just be marinated cabbage.

If you've been to my food blogs before, you'll notice that this is a revised version of the original sauerkraut post. The previous version contained the story of how I preserved the kraut that I had produced. I have since come to the conclusion that NCHFP has done a fine job of that, themselves, and that I don't need to clutter this recipe with that information.

Vegetables, Preserving, Pickling, Fermenting